Titles
by A. C. H. Smith
Click on any of the book titles below to see more details, or scroll down to view them all in turn.
The Crowd | Zero Summer | Orghast at Persepolis | Paper Voices | Treatment | Dickens of London | The Jericho Gun | Edward and Mrs Simpson | Extra Cover | The Dark Crystal | Wagner | Sebastian the Navigator | Lady Jane | Labyrinth | The Dangerous Memoir of Citizen Sade | Poems
The Crowd
Novel, Chapman & Hall, 1965. ASIN: B0006BWG2S
... the unrelaxing concision, venom, and care of his style. One reads, because he writes.
— Hilary Corke, The Listener
Some of it is funny, like early Murdoch
— Edwin Morgan, New Statesman
The sort of understatement that reminds me a little of the early, black, hilarious Evelyn Waugh
— Isabel Quigly, Sunday Telegraph
(Oh come on, chaps, early Murdoch or early Waugh, make up your minds.)
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Zero Summer
Novel, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971. ISBN 0-413-44630-1
A sophisticated and civilized comedy ... taut and stimulating
— Times Literary Supplement
By any standard a brilliant tour de force
— The Times
A durable literary talent
— Daily Telegraph
A wild comic imagination
— Cambridge Evening News
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Orghast at Persepolis
Non-fiction, Eyre Methuen, 1972. ISBN 0-413-28830-7 and 1973, ISBN 0-670-52835-8 (hardback), ISBN 0-413-32770-1 (paperback)
An account of the experiment in theatre directed by Peter Brook and written by Ted Hughes.
Smith's book is one of the most important and thought-provoking documents in the history of the
modern theatre, and an absolute joy to read, opening the unprejudiced mind in a hundred different ways.
— Alan Seymour, London Magazine
See review of Orghast at Persepolis by the Complete Review >
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Paper Voices
With Elizabeth Immirzi and Trevor Blackwell. Non-fiction, Chatto & Windus, 1975. ISBN 0-7011-2062-2
An indispensable item of social history
— Neal Ascherson, The New Statesman
Fascinating
— Phillip Whitehead, The Listener
A very solid and distinctive piece of research, which should keep its value for many years
— Raymond Williams, The Guardian
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Treatment
Novel, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. ISBN 0-297-77073-X
In 1964 my wife and I were the subjects of a six-part documentary series on BBC tv, produced by John Boorman, titled The Newcomers. Our friends, especially Tom Stoppard and Derek Balmer, also played parts. I choose the last phrase with care. The BBC themselves admitted that it was less a documentary than 'television's first novel.' Boorman’s series was hailed as tele-vérité, something fresh.
To be in it was a rewarding experience, but finally a deeply unsettling one. A novelist, I had allowed myself to become a character in someone else's fiction. Anyone who knows Flann O'Brien’s great comic novel At-Swim-Two-Birds will recognise what happened next. My reprisal, I realised, would be a novel that fictionalised the making of the tv fiction. This was it.
A solid, cunning book
— Lorna Sage, The Observer
A gripping narrative gift
— Nina Bawden, Daily Telegraph
Behind every quiet sentence lies an explosion of ideas. It's a novel to be read again and again
— Woman's Journal
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Dickens of London
Biography, ghosted for Wolf Mankowitz. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. ISBN 0-297-77159-0
From my forthcoming memoir.
As soon as I had delivered Treatment to Weidenfelds, my agent at that time, Jackie Baldick,
told me that they were looking for someone to write a biography of Dickens, to accompany a new tv series, Dickens of London.
The series was scripted by Wolf Mankowitz, and he had said he would write the accompanying book too, but now had run out of time.
I knew little about Dickens's life, and told Jackie I did not fancy the job. Not my kind of thing.
"They're offering a thousand pounds," she said in her engaging Baltimore voice.
"That's not much, for a biography."
"It is for five weeks’ work."
"They want it in five weeks?"
"Ant'ny, you're always telling me you're broke. How often can you make a thousand pounds in five weeks?" She had a way with her, Jackie.
"Oh, and when it comes out it will be by Wolf Mankowitz. Okay? You don't tell anyone that you wrote it."
On p.82 of the UK edition is a sentence that starts: Bentley yielded again, controlling his sullen mood in the hope
(not one that was obviously ludicrous for... which, read acronymically, reveals: By A C H Smith not Wolf. Mankowitz was beyond acronymising.
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The Jericho Gun
Thriller, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977. ISBN 0-297-77415-8 (hardback), ISBN 0-7088-1398-4 (paperback)
From my forthcoming memoir:
Having never sat on a horse, I decided to write it from the point of view of a small-time punter in Bristol, like me.
I came up with the idea of fixing races by using a sonic gun, outside the human auditory range but heard by horses.
I consulted a university physicist about the plausibility of it.
He explained to me how such a McGuffin as mine might be built and operated, and what it would look like.
My last question was, would it work? "I'm not sure," he said,"but if you like I'll rig one up for you, and we can go up to Cheltenham and give it a try."
He meant it. "Oh no," I simpered, "I'm a novelist, I’m not for real."
Some years later, I was rung by a solicitor. Would I be ready to be a witness in a trial at Southwark Crown Court? The Jericho Gun was to be called in evidence in a case involving an alleged drugs dealer. Asked by the police why he had been found with half a million pounds in notes in his car, his defence was that the money was to be used to develop a sonic gun to fix horse races, like the one he had read about in my book. What I was supposed to say in court is beyond my conjecture, but in the event I was not called. However, the prosecution did arrange for trials of such an instrument, in which Greville Starkey rode the horse. They were not conclusive. More sinisterly, at Royal Ascot a horse called Ile de Chypre unaccountably veered violently off course as it was coming to win its race, and something similar happened in South Africa. I was interviewed in The Independent, with no hint of villainy on my part but some question whether I might have inspired villains.
Don't miss this unputdownable racing thriller
— The Observer
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Edward and Mrs Simpson
Novelisation of British TV Series. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978. ISBN 0-297-77516-2 (hardback), ISBN 0-7088-1313-5 (paperback)
From my forthcoming memoir:
I was commissioned to write the novelisation of Edward and Mrs Simpson, in seven weeks this time.
Simon Raven was writing the television scripts for Thames TV, locked in a room in Deal, at his own request, so that he could not get at the booze.
As it came off his typewriter, each of the seven episodes was rushed to me in Bristol, one a week.
With tv marketing behind it the book came out in several languages, and was serialised in the ever patriotic Daily Express.
Auberon Waugh, who had previously been kind enough to invite me to a Private Eye lunch after I had interviewed him on my HTV programme,
publicly vented his disgust at the whole Edward and Mrs Simpson project, but I didn’t mind, because at the launch of the series, at the Dorchester,
I got to dance with Cherie Lunghi. When she writes her memoir, I do not think she will record having danced with me.
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Extra Cover
Thriller, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981. ISBN 0-297-77924-9
From my forthcoming memoir:
I suggested to my publisher and batting partner Christopher Falkus that I follow up The Jericho Gun with a cricket thriller,
using the same pair of anti-heroes. He agreed. Ted Dexter had just published a thriller in a Test match setting,
and I felt it unwise to challenge him in the arena of professional cricket, so, again, I wrote from my own experience, in club and village cricket.
Delicious build-up
— The Observer
Classy tale of country house cricket and crumpet
— Guardian
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The Dark Crystal
Novelisation of movie, Holt, Rinehart & Winston,1982. ISBN 0-03-062436-3
From my forthcoming memoir:
I did two books for Jim Henson, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth,
and thoroughly enjoyed working for him. He was a charming man, but what mattered was that, unlike most people who commission novelisations,
he cared about the book, as a legitimate child of the movie, as he cared about the film.
He created perfect conditions for my work, paying for me to spend as many days as I needed at Elstree, watching the shooting,
getting myself inward to the story, ensuring the detail was right in my descriptive passages.
I was supplied not just with the film script but also with a stack of research materials, think-papers and production drawings.
You owe it to the reader to be true to the script, but I was allowed as much scope as I wanted to expand the narrative, deepen it, comment or digress.
When I delivered the first draft, Henson read the manuscript himself, and came back with twenty pages of editorial comment.
Once I had taken that on board, he sat me down with him for lunch and a talk through what I had done.
On points of disagreement between us his default position was to respect my argument, and only seldom to insist on his.
Delightful, enthralling fantasy based on the cinematic creativity of the late Jim Henson,
this book proves much deeper than mere action-oriented adventure--of which there is plenty.
Almost a psychological novel, THE DARK CRYSTAL reveals the coming-of-age of the last male Gelfling on the planet of Thra.
— From Amazon review
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Wagner
Novelisation of movie, 1983. English-language edition forthcoming in 2011 from Loxwood Stoneleigh.
Wagner is a novelisation of Charles Wood's screenplay, written in the early 1980s.
Directed by Tony Palmer, the film starred Richard Burton, in his last major role, and Vanessa Redgrave, and uniquely brought together the three knights,
Olivier, Gielgud, and Richardson. Richard Hornak, in Opera News, found it to be one of the most beautiful motion pictures in history.
Read more >
Read an excerpt >
The English language version of this book will soon be available directly from the publisher, Loxwood Stoneleigh.
Purchase prices will be posted here when the book is published, later in 2011.
Sebastian the Navigator
Novel, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985. ISBN 0-297-78722-5
From my forthcoming memoir:
I had so much enjoyed the techniques I devised for Wagner that I went straight into writing a
historical novel of my own, about Sebastian Cabot. In 1497 his father, John Cabot, had sailed the
Matthew westward from Bristol, intending to open up an Atlantic trade with China and India and the
Spice Islands, and instead, to his chagrin, bumped into what we now call the mainland of North
America, which, contrary to popular error, had not been discovered by Columbus. Cabot's voyage
is the historical origin of our sharing the English language with the USA. Within a few years of his
father's death, Sebastian became a great man in Europe, and the first Master of the Merchant
Venturers, by claiming all the credit for his father's voyage (on which he probably did not sail), and
other discoveries besides, such as a waterway from where New York is to where San Francisco is.
The height of Thatcherism was an apt moment for a novel about mendacity. It would be the fifth
novel I had set in Bristol ...
John Curtis, the editorial director, wrote to me, I have a good feel about this project altogether
. But
something went badly wrong ... there were only perfunctory reviews. When I made enquiries, a
deep throat at Weidenfelds told me what had happened. The sales reps had given it the thumbsdown,
and in modern publishing their opinion outweighed that of my editor, and even the marketing
director's. In effect, the book was never published, only printed. I was facing my mid-list crisis.
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Lady Jane
Novelisation of movie, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985. ISBN 0-297-78723-3
From my forthcoming memoir:
The day I delivered the manuscript of Sebastian, Weidenfelds had asked me to do another
novelisation in a hurry, of Lady Jane. I did not want to do it, but I was in a soft trap. The story of
Lady Jane Grey happened in 1554, and my Cabot novel finished with the death of Sebastian in
1557. I was steeped in the period. How could I let the firm down by refusing them a few weeks'
work? Would that I had known what they would allow to happen to Sebastian, a few months later.
It was not easy to do a decent job on Lady Jane, because it was a lousy screenplay. I had to scrape
off what I could of the sentimental love story that had been varnished over David Edgar's concept,
probably at Paramount's behest, and do what I could to restore the poignant and far more interesting
true history.
The book was a big hit in Italy, where there is an audience that adores royal soap. Just look at Berlusconi.
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Labyrinth
Novelisation of movie, Henry Holt & Co, 1986. ISBN 0-03-007322-7
From my forthcoming memoir:
Before writing Labyrinth I spent a day with Terry Jones, the scriptwriter, at his home in Peckham.
He showed me a scene that had been dropped from the movie, for technical reasons. It was beautiful, and I restored it in the book. Henson did not object.
When my final manuscripts had been approved, they went to the Henson office in New York for copy-editing - 'translation into American,' the editor called it.
I spent many hours on transatlantic calls with her, working through The Dark Crystal.
When it came to Labyrinth, a few years later, I suggested that it would save money (and be more fun for me) if they flew me to New York for the editing,
and they did. I sat with the editor and a word-processor for a fortnight.
We spent 90 minutes trying to translate Snakes and Ladders into a game that American kids would know about, and finally gave up.
'They’ll just have to figure it out for themselves,' she sighed.
The book is just as rich and vibrant as the movie and Smith does an amazing job of recreating
Jim Henson's and Brian Froud's world into words.
— Bitemybooks.com. See full review here:
www.bitemybooks.com/2009/11/labyrinth-by-ach-smith.html
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The Dangerous Memoir of Citizen Sade
Novel, Loxwood Stoneleigh, 2000. ISBN 1-85135-033-0
My third bio-novel is an account of the period of the Terror in the French Revolution, told by two writers who were incarcerated together and loathed each other: Choderlos de Laclos, author of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and the Marquis de Sade. Read more >
Read excerpts >
Available directly from the publisher:
Jeremy Mulford, Loxwood Stoneleigh, 225 Gloucester Road (Top Floor), Bristol BS7 8NR, UK.
Tel: 0117 942 4361 (from outside UK +44 117 942 4361).
Cost (including postage): UK £19 / Europe €24 / USA $39. Cheques made out to Falling Wall Press.
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Poems
Selected with a foreword by Tom Stoppard, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9560222-3-3
From my forthcoming memoir:
In 2009 Stoppard rang me to say a small press had invited him to choose a few poems which they would publish as a pamphlet
representing his editorial taste. He said he would like the poems to be mine, and asked me to send him some.
I sent him 15, of which he chose 11, and I could see the reasons for his choice.
Then he said, "The earliest of these poems is dated 1959. It would be nice to have one dated 2009. Have you got one in you?"
It is an odd thing to be asked. Poems find you, not you them.
I looked through a thick file of things I had started and abandoned, and came across a fragment, just a line and a half, which began to sprout in my mind.
I worked it through to 17 lines and sent it to him. He rang me to say thanks, and he was glad to have provoked it, and he would add it to the pamphlet.
"I've got just one or two quibbles," he said, and went on to quibble with six details.
I accepted five of them at once, dug my heels in over the sixth. It is a better poem thanks to his quibbling.
When I put the 'phone down I thought, the world knows what talent he has in writing plays, but this, to read a new poem and spot flaws,
is supposed to be a job for a specialist, yet he can do that too.
Tony Astbury of the Greville Press launched the pamphlet at my daughter's gallery in Hampstead, with readings by Stoppard and me.
This little pamphlet has just enough poems in it. You could read it for a long long time and dispense with much else.
— Happenstancepress. See full review here:
www.happenstancepress.com/index.php?option=com_easyblog&view=entry&id=12
Available directly from the publisher:
Tony Astbury, Greville Press, 6 Mellors Court, The Butts, Warwick, CV34 4ST, UK.
Tel 01926 492086 (from outside UK +44 1926 492086).
Cost (including postage): UK £8 / Europe €10 / USA $15. Cheques made out to Greville Press.